Ford May Be Preparing to Unload Volvo

Deal with Geely estimated at $2B

(AP) - China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has signed a binding deal to buy Ford Motor Co.'s Volvo Cars unit, a Volvo spokesman Per-Ake Froberg confirmed today. He could not disclose the value of the deal, saying details on the price tag and the financing would be disclosed at a news conference later today. Analysts have estimated the deal at about $2 billion. More»

Final agreement with China's Geely expected early next year

(AP) - Ford says it is close to selling its loss-making Volvo unit to China's Geely and expects a final deal in the first quarter of next year. "All substantive commercial terms relating to the potential sale have been settled," Ford said in a statement. Ford chose Geely as the preferred bidder for Volvo in October. More»

Geely is only bidder remaining for Swedish subsidiary

(NEWSER) - Ford put its Volvo unit up for sale last December, and it's narrowed the possible buyers to just one bidder: a Chinese consortium led by Geely, the country's largest private automaker. Geely first approached Ford about the purchase in summer 2008 and is prepared to pay about $2 billion, less than a third of the price Ford paid a decade ago. The company rejected an offer by an American group backed by private equity. More»

(NEWSER) - The crash of the US auto market has sped up the global auto industry's shift toward emerging markets, and no one is better poised to take advantage than the Chinese, the Wall Street Journal reports. Geely, one of the few Chinese auto firms that operate without a foreign partner, has emerged as a frontrunner to buy Volvo from Ford and experts believe it could be selling its own models to the US in less than 5 years. More»

Chrysler off 53%; GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda all down more than 30%

(NEWSER) - Chrysler's sales were off 53% in December compared to the same time last year, the Wall Street Journal reports today, with Ford's off 32% and General Motors down 31%, further indicating a steep decline in US demand for cars. Foreign makers took an even harder hit last month: A 35% decline at Honda propelled that company to its first annual loss since 1993, Bloomberg says, while Toyota fell 37%. More»